Faculty

Sharon Milholland, Ph.D., is director of American Indian initiatives at Crow Canyon and a director of the institute. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working as an archaeologist, federal cultural resources manager, and educator in the Southwest. Prior to coming to Crow Canyon, she earned a doctorate in American Indian studies focusing on federal Indian law and policy, taught in the American Indian and native studies programs at the University of Arizona and the University of Saskatchewan, and designed research or native community development projects in the Southwest as an independent contractor.

Shirley Powell, Ph.D., is vice president of programs at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, where she coordinates the activities of the archaeology, education, and American Indian initiatives departments. She served as a professor of anthropology and director of the Archaeology Laboratory at Northern Arizona University, directed and was coprincipal investigator of the Black Mesa Archaeological Project in northeastern Arizona, and was a principal investigator for Archaeological Consulting Services in Tempe. She is the author or editor of several books, monographs, and articles about Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam archaeology.

Kathleen Stemmler, Ed.D., is director of programs at Crow Canyon and a director of the institute. She has more than thirty years of experience working as a cultural anthropologist and educator in the Southwest. Prior to coming to Crow Canyon, she taught at Northern Arizona University in both the Anthropology Department and the College of Education and was executive director of an anthropological arts-based center focused on dance.

Mark Varien, Ph.D., is executive vice president of the Research Institute at Crow Canyon. A preeminent Southwestern archaeologist, he is well recognized for his work in the Mesa Verde region. Dr. Varien has conducted and led archaeological research at Crow Canyon for more than twenty years. He is particularly noted for his innovative work that examines community organization and patterns of mobility in the ancient Pueblo world. During his tenure at Crow Canyon, he has established a reputation as a highly skilled instructor who can convey complex ideas in an engaging, intellectually stimulating manner.

Tessie Naranjo, Ph.D. (Santa Clara), is a founder of the Pueblo Indian Studies Program at Northern New Mexico College and former codirector of the Northern Pueblos Institute. She has been an advisor to numerous museums across the country, including the National Museum of the American Indian. A number of other prominent Pueblo Indian scholars will join Dr. Naranjo to provide us with their insights into Pueblo history and culture, as well as their understanding of how unity and diversity are expressed in the Pueblo world.

Theresa Pasqual is a member of Acoma Pueblo and the former director of Acoma’s Historic Preservation Office. As director, she protected the cultural, archaeological, and historical resources of the Pueblo, on and off the reservation. Her present work focuses on the protection of cultural landscapes, expansion of traditional ecological knowledge in scientific study, academic research, and policy based in equity, social justice, and inclusion. Theresa is a W.K. Kellogg Fellow finishing an archaeology degree at the University of New Mexico. She serves as advisor to both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Conservation Voters New Mexico Educational Fund.

Porter Swentzell, Ph.D. student (Santa Clara), is an assistant professor of indigenous liberal studies and chair of the President’s Advisory Council at the Institute of American Indian Arts. In 2014, he was presented with the Faculty of the Year Award by the Institute. Porter also serves as member of the Santa Clara Pueblo Education Advisory Committee and has devoted much of his career researching the Tewa language, in addition to conducting research on the benefits of traditional Pueblo diet and lifeways.

Robert M. Preucel, Ph.D., is director of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and professor of anthropology at Brown University. Dr. Preucel’s research focuses on the archaeology of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and since 1995 he has been collaborating with Cochiti Pueblo to study the meaning and contemporary significance of Hanat Kotyiti, a mesa-top village occupied immediately after the Pueblo Revolt. Their methodology integrates archaeological data, architectural analysis, ethnohistorical documents, and traditional narratives to provide a richer interpretive context than is available through any single line of evidence.

Kyle Bocinsky, Ph.D., is a Crow Canyon research associate and adjunct research faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University. Prior to joining Crow Canyon in 2016, Kyle was a postdoctoral research fellow at WSU as part of the Synthesizing Knowledge of Past Environments (SKOPE) project, where he developed large-scale, high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions for the southwestern United States. Kyle is a longtime member of the Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP) and has been collaborating with Crow Canyon researchers for almost a decade. He was part of the field crew in the 2009–12 Mesa Verde Community Center Survey, and he helped develop substantial portions of the VEP computer simulation of ancient Pueblo society.

Deloria Lomawaima, M.A., is a former Crow Canyon educator and Native American scholar-in-residence. She is a member of the Hopi Tribe and currently teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She has earned a bachelor of science in applied indigenous studies and a master of arts in education. Archaeology and cultural preservation have been a passion for Lomawaima and these interests have allowed her to be active in many projects, including helping create a Hopi planting curriculum for Crow Canyon and being a member of the Hopivewat planning committee to develop the first Hopi Museum. She continues to be involved in various projects that help preserve the culture and language of her people.

Kari Schleher, Ph.D., is Crow Canyon’s laboratory manager. She teaches artifact analysis to students and adults in Crow Canyon programs. Her specialty is the analysis and interpretation of Pueblo pottery; she is particularly interested in production technology and what pottery can tell us about connections between different groups of people who lived in the past. Kari enjoys traveling, especially to learn about cultures around the world, and she has worked on archaeological projects all over the American Southwest and in Peru.

About the Institute

Our Mission

The mission of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is to empower present and future generations by making the human past accessible and relevant through archaeological research, experiential education, and American Indian knowledge.